While I had originally rated this book at 3.5/4 stars right after reading, I've bumped it to 5 stars after really sitting and thinking on my feelings.

Natalie is a wonderfully written character. She's so complex and you both feel sympathy for her and hate her at the same time. The blend of characters in this book truly create an unsetting atmosphere and it's not until the very end that everything fits together. I spent the entire middle of the book wondering how the beginning tied in, but as the story starts to piece itself together, there was a whole different layer I hadn't paid attention to before. The themes of religion and religious performance in this novel have definitely developed into a point of contention on Bookstagram, but I really have no strong feelings on that. This book was speaking towards a very specific type of religious person and not religion as a whole. I think the ending also highlights this fact in several of the other characters' religious arcs. The other focus on women and feminism is so strong but very well done, it didn't feel self-righteous or like it was trying to throw the blame on one specific thing. It really showed how society as a whole influences women and how different women's paths can be. In the end, I still have questions that I'd love answers to, but I am happy I didn't get the answers because I think it would have killed the book to have made an effort to narrow down the details I'm curious about.

Surprisingly, my original lowered rating was due to the ending but after simmering on the story as a whole, it was actually the ending that really brought everything together. While I originally was going to write that I wanted this book to be 200-300 pages longer, I decided that this wouldn't have helped the story. With the way the ending concludes, the parts I wanted more of in the middle of the story would have been less satisfying and would stretch the story's plausibility.

I really wanted to write this review without spoilers so that a lot of my friends can read my thoughts and possibly take on this book, so unfortunately I won't be more specific than this, but I know for a fact that this book left its mark and I will definitely be thinking about it for the weeks to come. This one will definitely be on my "buy" list for my personal library.